The poetical works of Alexander Pope. To which is prefixed the life of the ...

She stood and cried, ' O you that lore in vain! Fly hence, and seek the fair Lencadian main. There stands a rock, from whose impending steep Apollo's fane surveys the rolling deep; There injur'd lovers, leaping from above, Their flames extinguish, and forget to love. Dencalion once with hopeless fury burn'd, In vain he lov'd, relentless Pyrrba scorn'd: But when from hence he plung'd into the main, Dencalion scorn'd, and Pyrrha lov'd in vain. 'Haste, Sappho, haste from high Lencadia throw, Thy wretched weight, nor dread the deeps below!' She spoke, and vanish'd with the voice—I rise. And silent tears fall trickling from my eyes. 1 go. ye nymphs! those rocks and seas to prove ( How much I fear, but ah, how much I love! I go, ye nymphs, where furious love inspires; Let female fears submit to female fires. To rocks and seas I fly from Phaon's hate, And hope from seas and rocks a milder fate. Ye gentle gales, beneath my body blow, And softly lay me on the waves below! And thon, kind love, my sinking limbs sustain, ^ Spread thy soft wings, and waft me o'er the /

Nor let a lover's death the guiltless flood pro

fane! JOn Phoebus' shrine my harp I'll then bestow, And this inscription shall be placed below: * Here she who sung, to him that did inspire, Sappho to Phcebus consecrates her lyre; What suits with Sappho, Phcebus suits with thee; The gift, the giver, and the god agree.'

But why. alas! relentless youth,,ad why To distant seas must tender Sappho fly? Thy charms than those may far more powerful be, And Phcebus' self is less a god to me. Ah! canst thou doom me to the rocks and sea, O far more faithless, and more hard than theyf

main.

Ah! canst thou rather see this tender breast Dash'd on these rocks, than to thy bosom press'd; This breast, which once, in vain! you lik'd so well; Where the loves play'd, and where the muses dwell? Alas! the muses now no more mspire, Untun'd my lute, and silent is my lyre; My languid numbers have forgot to flow, And fancy sinks beneath a weight of woe. Ye Lesbian virgins, and ye Lesbian dames, Themes of my verse, and objects of my flames, * No more your groves with my glad songs shall ring; No more these hands shall couch the trembling ." string:

My Phaon's fled, and I those arts resign,

(Wretch that I am, to call that Phaon mine!)

Return, fair youth, return, and bring along

Joy to my soul, and vigour to my song:

Absent from thee, the poet's flame expires;

But ah! how fiercely burn the lover's fires?

Gods! can no prayers, no sighs, no numbers move

One savage heart, or teach it how to love?

The winds my prayers, my sighs, my numbers bear,

The flying winds have lost them all in air!

Oh when, alas! shall more auspicious galos

To these fond eyes restore thy welcome sails?

If you return—ah why these long delays?

Poor Sappho dies while careless Phaon stays.

O, launch thy bark, nor fear the watery plain;

Venus for thee shall smooth her native main.

O launch thy bark, secure of prosperous gales;

Cupid for thee shall spread the swelling sails.

If you will fly—(yet ah! what cause can be,

Too cruel youth, that you should fly from me?)

If not from Phaon 1 must hope for ease,

Ah let me seek it from the raging seas:

J.o raging seas unpity'd I'll remove,

And either cease to live, or cease to love!

ELOISA TO ABELARD.

ARGUMENT.

A4,elard and Eloisa flourished in the twelfth century; they were two of the most distinguished persons of their age in learning and beanty, but for nothing more famous than for their unfortunate passion. After a long course of calamities they retired each to a several convent, and cousecrated the remainder of their days to religion. It was many years after this separation, that a letter of Abelard's to a friend, which contained the history of his misfortune, fell into the hands of Eloisa. This, awakening atl her tenderness, occasioned those celebrated letters (out of which the following is partly extracted) which give so lively a picture of the struggles of grace and nature, virtue and

ELOISA TO ABELARD.

IN these deep solitndes and awful cells. Where heavenly-pensive contemplation dwells, And ever-musing melancholy reigns; What means this tumult in a vestal's veins? Why rove my thoughts beyond this last retreat? Why feels my heart its long-forgotten heat? Yet, yet I love !—From Abelard it came, And Eloisa yet must kiss the name*

Soon as thy letters trembling I unclose, That well-known name awakens all my woes. Oh, name for ever sad! for ever dear! Still breath'd in sighs, still usher'd with a tear. I tremble too, where'er my own I find, Some dire misfortune follows close behind. Line after line my gushing eyes o'erflow, Led through a sad variety of woe: Now warm in love, now withering in my bloom, Lost in a convent's solitary gloom! There stern religion quench'd th' unwilling flame, There died the best of passions, love and fame.

Yet write, oh write me all, that I may join Griefs to thy griefs, and echo sighs to thine. Nor foes nor fortune take this power away; And is my Abelard less kind than they? Tears still are mine, and those f need not spare, Love but demands what else were shed in prayer; No happier task these faded eyes pursue; To read and weep is ail they now can do.

Then share thy pain, allow that sad relief; Ah, more than share it, give me all thy grief. Heaven first taught letters for some wretch's aid, Some banish'd lover, or some captive maid; They live, they speak, they breathe what love in- spires,

Warm from the soul, and faithful to its fires, The virgin's wish without her fears impart, Excuse the blush, and pour out all the heart, Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul, And waft a sigh from Indus to the pole!

Thou know'st how guiltless first I met thy flame, "When love approach'd me under friendship's name; My fancy form'd thee of angelic kind. Some emanation of the All-beauteous Mind. Those smiling eyes, attempering every ray, Shone sweetly lambient with celestial day. Guiltless I gaz'd; Heaven listen'd while you sungs And truths divine came mended from that tongue. Prom lips like those what precept fail'd to move? Too soon they taught me 'twas no sin to love: Back through the paths of pleasing sense I ran, Nor wish'd an angel whom I lov'd a man. Dim and remote the joys of saints I see, Nor envy them that heaven I lose for thee.

How oft, when press'd to marriage, have I said. Curse on all laws but those which love has made! Love, free as air, at sight of human ties, Spreads his light wings, and in a moment flies. Let wealth, let honour, wait the wedded dame, Angust her deed, and sacred be her fame; Before true passion all those views remove; Fame, wealth, and honour! what are you to love t The jealous god, when we profane his fires, Those restless passions in revenge inspires, And bids them make mistaken mortals groan, Who seek in love for aught but love alone. Should at my feet the world's great master fall, Himself, his throne, his world, I'd scorn them all: